Pastor Angela Ricketts is a Christian Leaders Institute student from Missouri, and she enrolled at CLI for training to plant new Church’s and Mentor Center training free online. Here is her story…
Mentor Center Training Free Online – Angela’s Story
Greetings and Blessings to every one of you who are a part of Christian Leaders Institute! My name is Pastor Angela Marie Ricketts and I reside in, the area deemed, the heart of Missouri. I am 49 years of age and I have five children and six grandchildren. I married a wonderful man twenty-three years ago and we are still going strong. He has been an inspiration to me.
I attended community college and our local university studying Psychology and Sociology. I am twenty credit hours shy of my double bachelor’s degree, which I am contemplating finishing if my health allows. I, along with three sisters, have a genetic syndrome and the main symptom is continuous excruciating pain throughout the entire body, along with one or more diagnosed (undiagnosed autoimmune disorders). This syndrome has been the biggest reason I have not been able to complete my degrees and I am currently disabled.
To top off my own illnesses and those of my family members, my husband and I have suffered great loss over the last several years, culminating with our eldest son, Brian, who passed away in 2008 in a tragic motorcycle accident at only 22. Then my dear mother passed away at only 61 with her fifth bout of cancer over a thirty-year period. I confess I lost much of my faith with these two losses and the worsening of my illness; however, of late I have felt a sudden resurgence of my faith and a very deep calling in my heart to the ministry. I am praying I can bring my husband back to his faith, as he seems to have totally lost his belief system. I understand why he has done so, losing his oldest son; however, he needs the Lord back in his life and I hope my persistence in spreading the gospel will reopen his eyes. I am ordained and he seems to be proud of me for this, but it has not turned him back to the path of Christianity yet. I am more than ready to do God’s will, whatever His will may be!
I was saved when I was ten years old and baptized by the time I was twelve. I did feel a change take place in myself and my life; unfortunately, the grief processes I went ( and still experience) through over the loss of my son and mother, and over the loss of my “normal”, healthy life took hold and pulled me down into a great depression where I believed in very little. However, I am back with the living and I feel the need to praise the Lord for pulling out of the pit I was in and saving my life.
A scholarship with Christian Leaders Institute will help me go forward with my life in my quests to help give other people hope in the face of adversity! I am very interested in the possibility of planting a new church and opening a Mentor Center here, where other individuals can continue or renew their faith in the Lord. I am ready to do whatever it is the Lord is calling me to do! I have high hopes and strong ambitions for opening a Mentor Center, as I feel this is a wonderful way to spread Christian beliefs and to teach others to spread those beliefs beyond the barriers of my own location and inability to travel due to my health.
I have never felt closer to our Lord than I do now. Certainly, it was He who pulled me up out of the depths of my despair and who is setting me back on my feet. He is giving me a reason to live my life again and to spread the gospel. I look forward to my continued journey with Christ in my life guiding me to where I am meant to be. I wish you all Godspeed on your own journeys and Blessed Be!
Sincerely,
Pastor Angela Marie Ricketts
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